With Music and Justice for All by Frye Gaillard

     As commentators, Frye Gaillard and Hal Crowther occasionally overlap in the subject matter they write about.  Usually their focuses converge largely on social issues in the American South - its literary stars and music, its religious proclivities, and the rough edges that define its history.  The people and events they expound upon are anything but dull.  And I still refer back to Gaillard's Watermelon Wine (an excellent background of country music) and Crowther's Cathedrals of Kudzu just for the excellent essay writing.

     Gaillard shows he's still on the map with this collection, a mixture of new and old and revamped essays.  He has a wonderful way of exposing the reader to the unsung heroes that either quietly made their mark or were famous and then forgotten in the collective memory.  He also interviews the legendaries whose names never quite die and then manages to show a vulnerable and human side to them all.  Johnny Cash and Tipper Gore, James Baldwin and John T. Scopes all enliven the pages of this book, among others.

     I think what I like most about Gaillard's essays is that I always learn something different about the region we live in, with each successive reading.

(William Hicks, Information Services)